


Nothing to Lose

by orphan_account



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Brief Mentions of Blood, Bullying, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Runaway!Eddie, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-14 21:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16048595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Richie knew that the last week of summer would be crazy, but he didn’t expect that it would be harbouring a runaway in his bedroom crazy.





	1. Chapter One

With a small smile on his face, Richie leans his head back against the walls of the underground clubhouse, a lit cigarette between his fingers and the smell of smoke in the air. He closes his eyes, listening to the excited chatter of the others and the faint music playing from his phone. It’s the perfect end to summer, hanging out with his friends in the safety of their underground clubhouse, drinking slightly warm cans of cheap cider (well, only one; his mom would kill him if he came home drunk — it’s a long time until he can legally drink) and Richie can’t think of a better way to spend the evening. The Losers have never been about flashy parties or group vacations like some of the others at their school, just a nice couple of hours together in the clubhouse where they can leave their worries at the trap door is enough for them.

“I heard that Bowers is being kept back again,” Bev says taking a sip from her can as she leans against Ben who’s face, even in the poor lighting of the clubhouse, is scarlet. “That means he’s in our grade this year which fucking sucks.”

“Can’t even get away from him in class now,” Stan sighs. “I mean maybe we’ll get lucky and have no classes with him but that’s more unlikely than all of us being in the same classes, I guess.”

“We had biology together last year, remember? So maybe it won’t be too bad,” Bev shrugs. “I bet we get at least one class together. Hopefully something group based like English or history.”

“All of this makes me glad that I’m not at that school,” Mike laughs from the corner where he’d been quietly listening to the conversation. “Makes me wonder whether it’s even worth trying to convince my parents to transfer me.”

“Of course it is, Mikey,” Richie pouts pretending that his feelings have been hurt as he leans forward slightly. “Don’t you want to be in school with all of your best friends? You miss out on some cracking jokes, I’m telling you. Plus you’d finally get all of the school gossip and we won’t have to explain it to you!”

Mike holds his hands up. “I’m trying to get my parents to let me transfer, chill, but they’re just hesitant because of Bowers. You know they are. But they’ll budge soon, don’t worry.”

Richie gives Mike a thumbs up and looks down at his phone to quickly change the song. He’s the only one who has _Spotify Premium_ which means that he’s the one in charge of the music. That and the fact that he spends hours in his bedroom carefully crafting playlists for them to listen to together. It’s a good way to channel his emotions, he tells his parents when they bring it up, and a good use of his boredom or would they rather he be out experimenting with drugs? He doesn’t put his playlist making over doing homework or anything, so it’s not that bad, and his parents enjoy them when they give them a listen. He makes them for birthdays and Christmas and it’s a nice way to introduce them to new music. The Losers love them too, and so does Richie. Ben has his poetry and Pinterest boards, Mike has his flowers, Stan has his birds, Bill has his writing, Bev has her piano and Richie has his playlists.

“Hey, Stan,” He says. “Don’t you have to be home in half an hour?” It was just under that from the clubhouse to Stan’s and so if he wanted to make it on time, he’d better leave now. Richie didn’t want the evening to end, but it would be selfish for him to let his friend get in trouble just because he wanted company.

“Oh, crap, yeah. Thanks Rich. Mom’ll kill me if I’m late.” Stan looks at his watch before jumping to his feet, almost hitting his head on the trap door. He puts his coat on, stoops down to hug everyone and then leaves with a shouted goodbye as the trap door shuts.

Soon enough, the others are leaving too. Mike, then Bill and Bev. It’s just Richie and Ben left for a while and then Ben announces that he has to leave too and Richie is left to clean up the mess. He doesn’t mind, though, it’s not as if they’re awfully messy. Just a few wrappers and cans that he quickly chucks into a plastic bag and shoves in the basket on his bike. He still has an hour until his own curfew at 8:30 so he can bin the rubbish at Memorial Park and take a couple of minutes to wind down he supposes.

With music blasting in his ears he pedals to Memorial Park and brakes just short of the bin. He tosses the rubbish and wheels his bike over to and leans it against a park bench before sitting down himself. It’s not quite autumn yet, but the leaves are starting to lose their colour a little and it’s something that excites him — he loves autumn. Loves the chill in the air and the crunchy leaves, Halloween and the bags of candy they start to sell in the lead up. It’s his favourite season and he’d argue that until he was blue in the face. It was a perfect mix between summer and winter and he lives for it. Especially Halloween; the Losers don’t dress up or go trick-or-treating anymore but there’s a lot of joy in the horror movie nights they have. They would still trick-or-treat if it wasn’t for the judgemental adults who had deemed them too old just because they were edging closer to sixteen. It sucks, but there’s not much that he can do about it. He still eats the same amount of candy he did as a kid, only now it’s paid for by his pocket money, not the kindness of strangers.

He sits there for a while, wrapped up in his thoughts, before he notices the boy on the bench opposite him. He looks as if he’s asleep, curled around a backpack that’s practically bulging with the amount of things shoved into it. The whole thing feels off to Richie; the boy looks to be around his age and it’s pretty clear that he has nowhere to go. So Richie finds himself standing up and crossing the path, unsure of exactly what he’s doing and what his plan is but knowing it’s the right thing to do anyway. He can’t just leave the boy here. Derry isn’t exactly the safest place on Earth.

“Excuse me,” he clears his throat, leaning forward to shake the sleeping boy’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”

The boy jolts awake with a surprised gasp, pushing Richie’s hand off of him as he sits up, eyes wide and darting around. He takes a few seconds to compose himself, his face hardening into a scowl directed towards Richie before he speaks.

“I’m fine,” he says. “What do you want?”

“My name’s Richie. I uh, you’re sleeping on a park bench,” Richie says, scuffing his shoe as a nervous habit. “I wouldn’t say that that meant you were fine. Do you want me to walk you home or are you like, I don’t know, trying to teach your parents a lesson about controlling you or something?”

“Yeah, you can walk me home,” the boy scoffs. “If you’re willing to make the trek to New York and back. Took me a couple of days and a few buses but y’know, feel free to walk there if you want to.”

Richie stands there for a minute or two, trying to search for something to say. The other boy is still scowling and so he settles for a simple sorry. The boy huffs, turns slightly away from Richie and Richie knows that the boy wants him to just walk away, but he can’t bring himself to. He at least needs to make sure that the boy has somewhere safe to stay whether it’s a shelter or a hotel room.

“Well,” he says eventually. “You can’t be sleeping in the park. Have you tried the shelters? I think they wo—”

“Full.”

“Oh, uh, what about a hotel room? There’s one not far from here. I could walk you to it if you wanted—”

“Not enough money.”

Richie blinks surprised but not put off by the boy’s harsh tone. “I’m being serious when I say that you can’t stay out here. It’s not safe. I mean, neither is taking buses from New York to Maine but… I just want to help, man, we’re like the same age and I’m not sure I would be able to survive as a runaway so… and I’m not insulting you there it’s just like what happens in winter, y’know? What happens if—”

“What do you suggest I do then?” the boy narrows his eyes.

“You can stay at my house?” Richie was known for having no filter and it’s at times like this when he regrets it. His parents will never allow it, but it’s too late to take it back now. “I, uh, we’ll have to sneak in and like you wouldn’t be able to leave my room until my parents are gone but…” he trails off, giving a little shrug. He half hopes that the boy doesn’t take the offer, that they can somehow manage to find somewhere for him to stay but he knows that that’s rude.

The boy considers it for a while and Richie shuffles from foot to foot as he waits for an answer. “Okay,” the boy nods and his face softens as he imitates Richie’s shrug. “I haven’t exactly got anything to lose. Name’s Eddie by the way, and I’m sorry for being an asshole.”

“It’s okay,” he nods back towards his bike. “You wanna ride double?”

/

Richie pedals as fast as he can to his house, aware that he’s almost late for curfew. He instructs Eddie to wait at the side of the house as he wheels his bike through the back garden and into the shed. Through the window he can see his mom standing over the stove and his dad sat at the kitchen table. They were both distracted. That was good. He ducks down and sneaks back to the side of the house before they see him and force him to enter through the back door. Then he would be in trouble.

“Right,” Richie says to Eddie. “As soon as I open the front door you need to run to the stairs. Don’t bother about taking your shoes or coat off, just get up the stairs alright? My parents are in the kitchen and they can see down the hallway so you have to do it fast otherwise this whole thing is bust.”

Eddie nods in understanding and the two make their way to the front of the house. Richie digs his key out of his pocket, unlocks the door and then Eddie pushes in front of him and is on the stairs in a matter of seconds. Richie gives him a quick thumbs up and steps in himself, shutting the door behind him. That’s what makes his parents look up and his dad flashes him a grin. He returns it as he shrugs off his coat and wipes his shoes on the doormat so that he doesn’t get shouted at by his mom for muddying the floor.

“Have a good time, Rich?” his dad calls.

“Yeah it was great,” he nods. “I’m bursting to go to the toilet, call me when dinner’s ready, thanks!” he calls as he ushers Eddie up the stairs. “My room is a little bit of a mess, sorry,” he says, pushing open the door for Eddie. “Make yourself comfortable. I wasn’t lying about needing the toilet so I’ll be back.”

When he returns to his room, wiping his wet and still slightly soapy hands on his jeans, Eddie is perched on the edge of Richie’s bed. He’s looking around at the mess on the floor with a slightly shocked expression on his face. It doesn’t bother Richei though, despite the chaos in his room he knows where things are and that’s all that matters. Occasionally his mom will clean the room, once it gets too much for her to bare, but it doesn’t stay that way for long. Half of the mess comes from him just trying to find things that she’d put away. Eddie’s backpack in lying by the door and Richie prods it with his foot.

“What’ve you got in here?” he asks. “Your kitchen sink?”

“Things I need,” Eddie shrugs. He reaches forward and pulls it closer towards him. “Clothes, toiletries, that kind of stuff. Some medicines but not a lot cause…” he frowns, looking at Richie before shaking his head. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“Smells like mom’s doing tomato soup for dinner if that’s good with you?” Richie flops onto his bed, leaning against his headboard. “I’ll bring some up for you, don’t worry. I have a pretty big appetite so my parents aren’t gonna blink when I get seconds.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

In the following half an hour Richie scrolls through his phone and hands Eddie his laptop to do whatever he wants. He gets a glimpse when he stands up and it looks as if he’s on _Netflix_ but Richie doesn’t know what he’s watching. He doesn’t even seem to notice when Richie’s called down for dinner until Richie nudges him and tells him that he’ll be back up with food in a little while. He just nods and then goes back to his episode.

Dinner goes smoothly. Richie tells his parents all about the evening that he had, leaving out the bit about drinking cider and also Eddie, and how much he was looking forward to Mike possibly transferring to Derry High. It was exciting no matter if it happened within the week leading up to school or later in the school year, and the Losers Club were very much looking forward to being able to spend at least 5 days of the week together. Their teachers? Probably not so much.

“Hey mom, can I have some more please?” His request was granted without hesitation, more soup ladled into his bowl and a bread roll handed to him by his dad. “Thanks. And can I eat it in my room?” at his mom’s confused expression he quickly adds, “I still haven’t finished my summer homework and I want to get some of it done tonight.”

“Okay, sure,” Maggie nods. “As soon as you bring the bowl down when you’re done.”

“Thanks!” Richie makes his way slowly to his room, careful not to spill or drop the bowl and pushes open the door with his foot. “Dinner is served, Eds.”

“Don’t call me that,” Eddie mumbles, taking out Richie earphones before sitting up to accept the bowl. “Thanks.”

Richie takes the bowl of soup downstairs once Eddie’s finished and grabs two ice cream sandwiches out of the freezer, hiding them in the pocket of his hoodie as he hugs his parents goodnight and heads upstairs. He hands Eddie the treat and doesn’t mind when Eddie gets ice cream on his duvet cover.

“You’re sleeping there so I don’t really care.” Richie shrugs when Eddie looks at him wide eyed.

“Where are you sleeping?” Eddie frowns. “I mean you can have the bed, I’ve been sleeping in all sorts of places. Trust me, there’s nowhere I can’t fall asleep.”

“I’ll sleep on the floor, it’s fine,” Richie waves away Eddie’s concern with a quick flap of his hand. He heads to his closet, dumps a load of blankets onto his floor and switches off the light. “Night, Eddie.”

“Night Richie. Thanks for all this by the way.”

“It’s no problem good sir,” Richie settles down into the pile of blankets. “Now let’s shut the fuck up and sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My tumblr](https://deadwardkaspbrak.tumblr.com/)   
>  [A(n unfinished) playlist for this fic](https://open.spotify.com/user/hvavg74h1y8fsk8k1pxvqbi2i/playlist/4FtCCiLHMqbY8z36pX5cXf?si=2wn7Wug4RTmfY3taY_BXMQ)


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The update schedule for this fic will be Mondays and Thursdays. 
> 
> However, I'm uploading the chapter a day early because I'm moving down to university tomorrow for my second year which means that it's going to be a bit chaotic and I would rather upload it earlier than later. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Richie wakes to the sound of his alarm, fumbling for his phone in the mess of blankets. He switched it off pretty quickly, sitting up and rubbing his eyes in an effort to wake himself up. It’s just after 5AM but he needs to get Eddie up if the boy wants to shower and eat before Richie’s parents wake up. He stands up, flicking on the light switch before prodding Eddie several times to wake him up.

“You want a shower and some food?” Richie asks when the boy glares at him. Eddie nods. “Well then you’d better get your ass to the bathroom before my parents start to wake up.”

Eddie lets out a groan, pulling a pillow over his head. Richie sighs, grabs another pillow and starts to smack Eddie with it. It works but for a moment Richie’s afraid that they’ve been too loud. Something creaks and he and Eddie pause for a moment, listening out for Richie’s parent’s door to open, for footsteps to start down the hall but nothing happens and they let out breaths that they didn’t know they were holding. With Eddie finally up, Richie takes him down to the downstairs bathroom whilst he uses the upstairs one, aware that if his parents did wake up to the sound of running water then at least he wouldn’t have to lie when telling them that he’d had a shower. He uses the bathroom, brushes and flosses his teeth, and then heads back to his room where Eddie is just pulling on a shirt.

“Give me your dirty clothes and I’ll wash ‘em for you,” Richie says, tossing the clothes that Eddie hands him into his hamper which he takes downstairs when they decide on breakfast. “What do you want for breakfast? We’ve got cereal or I can make scrambled eggs on toast or pancakes. My waffles are a work in progress, though, so I wouldn’t recommend those.”

Eddie snorts, shaking his head slightly. “Eggs on toast sounds good I guess.”

“You guess?” Richie raises an eyebrow. “Even my mom says I make pretty mean eggs and what mom says is true most of the time.”  
“Well what if that’s one of the times something she says isn’t true?” Eddie says, smirking as he leans against the counter. “I guess that I’ll be be the judge, huh?”

“Maggie Tozier knows good eggs when she eats them,” Richie says as he cracks four eggs into a frying pan, adding in some milk afterwards. “Trust me. If she didn’t like it, I would know.”

The two quieten down as Richie cooks, and sit at the table once they’re done. Richie shakes some pepper onto his eggs, but Eddie has them plain.

“So,” Richie says as he shovels a bite of eggs into his mouth. He sees Eddie wince as he talks with his mouth full, but Richie’s manners have never really been great and he doesn’t really care. “Why’d you run away? And I’m not gonna say that it’s okay if you don’t want to tell me because I gotta know if I’m gonna get in trouble for hiding you.”

“It’s nothing bad,” Eddie shakes his head. “Well, on my part anyway. My mom’s a bit of a psycho and I just had enough so I saved up enough money to get me out of New York and seized the opportunity when I had it. I’m not, like, a murderer or anything so you’re good.”

“Oh okay,” Richie nods. “Well why’d you end up in Derry then? Surely there was somewhere else you could’ve gone. Somewhere better.”

“I ran out of money,” Eddie shrugs. “Bus tickets aren’t exactly cheap and besides, nobody knows me here so it’s perfect. Nobody will expect to find me here, hell, I didn’t even know that the place existed until I bought the ticket for the bus.”

“Yeah, it’s not exactly well known,” Richie says. “But you could have ended up in a worse place I guess. I mean, Derry isn’t great by any means and I’m getting the hell out of here as soon as I can but y’know…”

Eddie nods and the two finish their breakfasts in silence. Richie puts the plates in the sink and starts running the water, glancing towards the clock to see how long he has before his dad’s alarm clock goes off and he’s getting ready for work. Under ten minutes. He tells Eddie to go upstairs and that he’ll be up once he’s finished washing up, and Eddie complies. He feels slightly bad for constantly bossing Eddie around, but it’s the only way that they’re not going to get caught.

Wentworth Tozier shuffles into the kitchen minutes later, surprised to see Richie there. Richie grins at him, ‘new school year, new me dad’ (even though they both know that it isn’t true), and pours his dad a coffee once he’s finished washing up and is forced into a conversation with him for a couple of minutes. He hovers under the arch, trying to hint to his dad that he really doesn’t want to be in this conversation, but his dad is too busy focusing on his breakfast that he doesn’t notice. It ends well, though, as Richie manages to weasel $10 from him with a promise to cut the grass later and he pockets the money as he heads upstairs.

“Sorry,” he apologises as he steps into his room. “Dad wanted to have a conversation with me.”

“It’s fine,” Eddie shrugs from where he’s sat cross-legged on Richie’s bed. “Do you think we could go outside for a bit today? I just hate being inside and—”

“We’ll have to wait until my dad goes to work and till mom’s distracted doing something,” Richie cuts him off. “So yeah, maybe later, but not right now.”

“But your mom isn’t even up so we can—”

“No we can’t,” Richie protests, keeping his voice low. “My dad is up and about and he will be for the next 20 minutes at least. He’ll catch us if we try now so just keep quiet and maybe we can sneak out after dad leaves. Mom doesn’t usually get up for a couple of minutes afterwards. Please stop arguing with me, dude. I’m just trying to look out for you.”

Eddie huffs but doesn’t say anything else. Richie sighs, shakes his head and sits in his desk chair. He hadn’t been lying to his mom last night when he’d said that he hasn’t finished his summer homework and he had been planning to get it done in the next couple of days, but he has a feeling that it isn’t going to happen. He glances at the half finished math sheet and shakes his head. It’s not even 8AM, he’s not doing math. It’ll have to wait and it won’t be the first time he hasn’t completed his summer homework.

As soon as the front door shuts, Eddie sits up, looking towards Richie expectantly. Richie sighs, supposing that now is a better time than ever. He nods towards the door and grabs his backpack as they leave. They’re slipping their shoes on when the creak of Richie’s parent’s bedroom door sounds and soft footsteps crossing the landing. Richie ushers Eddie out of the front door where he crouches to the side of the front porch, out of sight unless Maggie peers over the edge.

“Richie?” Her voice laced with sleep calls down. “Is that you, honey?”

“Yeah,” Richie calls back, looking up to see her halfway down the stairs. “I’m going down to the Barrens to meet Bill and Stan, is that okay? I don’t know if I’ll be back for lunch.”

“Okay, that’s fine,” Maggie nods. “Tell the boys that I say hi and stay safe, alright?”

“Uh-huh,” Richie gives her a small smile before he starts to close the front door. “I’ll see you later mom, love you.”

“Love you too. Text me if you won’t be home for lunch.”

“Okay. Bye!”

He closes the door and Eddie straightens up, exhaling loudly. It was a close one, and Richie had warned Eddie, but luckily they were undiscovered and okay. He knows that he’s not going to be able to keep this a secret for long; he’s hiding another boy in his bedroom! But he’s scared about what his parent’s reactions will be when they find him, if they’ll want to send him back to his ‘psycho’ mother or not. It’s something that he doesn’t want to think about really, even though he knows he should so that he and Eddie have a plan for when it happens. He assumes that Eddie has thought about it because it would be stupid not to. He has to know that this whole thing isn’t going to last for ever, no one can be that much of an optimist surely? Or that naive, Richie guesses is a better term for it.

“Who are Stan and Bill?” Eddie walks. “And what’s the Barrens?”

“They’re some of my best friends,” Richie smiles. “Stan and I have been friends since we were in diapers, and Bill came along in kindergarten. There’s also Mike, Ben and Bev. Maybe you can meet them soon, although we haven’t had a new person in the group since Mike joined when we were eleven. And you’ll see the Barrens, that’s where we’re going. My friends and I have an underground clubhouse there. It’s pretty cool. The clubhouse that is, not the Barrens.”

“Oh nice,” Eddie’s voice is quiet as he looks down at the pavement. “I’ve never really had a group of friends before. Mom was pretty clear that she didn’t like any of the other kids at school so I pretty much just sat alone. There was no point in making her angry.”

“Did she…” Richie frowns, unsure of how to phrase the question. It wasn’t one that he should really be asking, but he wants to know so that he “Um, when she was angry did she—?”

“No, no,” Eddie shakes his head. “Never anything like that. Not physical. But she was pretty, uh, well manipulative I guess. She’d have these massive fits if I even suggested breaking one of her many rules. Especially the ones about medication. Disobeying one of those was a sure fire way to have her crying her eyes out on the kitchen floor,” Eddie winces, slowing down so that he was barely walking. Shaking his head again and running a hand over his face he turns to Richie with a pained expression. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore, okay? I just… she was a bitch and I’m glad to be rid of her.”

“That’s fair enough,” Richie mumbles, kicking a rock off the pavement. “If you don’t want to talk about it then you don’t have to, don’t worry. I shouldn’t have asked really. It’s not my business.”

“It’s okay,” Eddie says, starting to walk again. “I mean you took me in after all, so you have the right to want to know why I’m running in the first place. I was surprised that you didn’t ask yesterday if I’m honest.”

“Didn’t really think about it,” Richie shrugs. “Figured you’d tell me if you wanted to. Like I said earlier, the only reason I asked was just to make sure that, y’know, the police weren’t about to come and break down our door.”

“That’s fair enough,” Eddie smiles. He turns to Richie. “You should’ve brought your bike.”

“Yeah, I know,” Richie laughs. “But I didn’t really think about that when my mom was coming down the stairs and you hadn’t hidden yet. I was kinda stressed.”

Eddie echoes Richie’s laugh, the two of them walking side by side on the pavement down to the Barrens. Richie points out where they usually stash their bikes and walks in front of Eddie down the narrow trail leading to the underground clubhouse. He talks Eddie’s ear off as they go, not that that’s out of character, telling him about all of the great times they’d had down here — “that’s where Stan fell in a puddle of mud once and cried for like an hour afterwards.” or “one time Bev pushed me into that patch of stinging nettles. I deserved it though.” — he stops when they reach the underground clubhouse, turning to Eddie.

“Can you see it?”

“See what?”

“The entrance to the clubhouse,” Richie gestures around, aware that he wouldn’t be able to tell. No one could. It had taken the Losers a while to know exactly where it was when they had first built it, but years and years of using it meant that they could probably find it blindfolded. “We cover the top with leaves ‘n’ shit,” he explains, walking over to where the trapdoor was when Eddie just gave him a blank look. He pulls it up, gesturing for Eddie to go in. “Change ‘em every season. Bowers and his friends never notice.”

Richie enters after Eddie and the two sit with their legs stretched out in front of them. Richie can imagine him blending in with the other losers well. With firecracker personality he’d fit in real well, along with his shitty parents and his tragic back story he made for a perfect seventh loser. Add in the fact that Henry Bowers would absolutely hate him and he fit all of the boxes. Richie would have to tell the losers at some point — he couldn’t hide this from them. At least they would understand unlike his parents. They could help him.

The boys don’t stay in the clubhouse for long. Richie makes up his mind that he’ll tell the losers tomorrow with Eddie’s permission. They planned to meet up anyway and Eddie would probably want to leave again so it seemed like the perfect plan. Leaving the Barrens, they headed towards town with Richie pointing things out on the way. He didn’t expect Eddie to be listening but the other boy asks questions upon question that Richie doesn’t have the answers to. No, he doesn’t know how long it takes to walk from his house to the bus station, or from his house to the town sign. He doesn’t like the theme of those questions but he doesn’t say anything because it’s not his choice to make whether Eddie stays or goes. He’s free to go any time although Richie would prefer that he’d stay. It’s nice to have new company. A new person to get to know and love.

Richie takes Eddie to the local diner first, he texts his mom when they’re seated to tell her that they’re grabbing lunch out, and the two share a cone of salty chips and have a burger each. Eddie marvels at it when it’s brought to their table and wolfs it down, wiping his greasy mouth and fingers on a napkin once he’s done. Richie smirks at him, halfway through his burger by the time Eddie’s finished.

“I’ve never been allowed to eat stuff like that,” Eddie admits sheepishly. “It was really, really good. Now I understand why people eat it so much.”

Richie laughs at that, orders them both milkshakes to go which they sip as they head over to the library. He explains his plan to Eddie as they go; school starts in a week and Richie’s going to be gone for most of the day as a result which leaves Eddie alone in his room providing that he’s still staying there. The least that Richie can do for him is check out some books that he wants to read. He’ll leave his laptop behind so that he can watch films and stuff, but that’ll become boring after awhile, Richie’s sure. Eddie seems interested when Richie mentions his comic books, though, so that’s always good.

By the time they’re done exploring Derry and Richie’s backpack is heavy with novels, they start to make their way back home. They’re just turning the corner when Wentworth’s car pulls into the driveway. Eddie ducks behind a bush as Richie’s dad get out, waving to his son. Richie has no choice now but to leave Eddie and join his dad — anything else would be too obvious.

“I’ll come back out soon.” He whispers to Eddie before sprinting the rest of the distance to his house, giving his dad a hug when he reaches him. He throws a glance over his shoulder before he steps inside and toes off his shoes.

It’s another ten minutes before he leaves the house to fetch Eddie, waiting until both of his parents were occupied before. He finds Eddie where he left him, inspecting a scratch on his arm that he assumes that he got from the bush. Richie’s relieved and surprised when he finds him — he hadn’t expected him to still be waiting.

“They’re both out in the back yard,” Richie says as they start towards his house. “We’ve still got to be quick though, just in case.”

  
They get in fine and to Richie’s bedroom without being discovered. Eddie settles down to watch something on _Netflix_ whilst Richie actually starts on the math worksheet he had been looking at this morning. He doesn’t get very far before he’s called down to dinner where he avoids his parents questions about what he had been doing as much as he can. He knows that Stan and Bill would back him up if needed but he doesn’t want to go too in depth just in case his parents do bump into them in the street and ask them about it (which has happened before).

“Summer homework!” Richie shouts over his shoulder as he takes the second portion upstairs without asking permission.

Eddie eats half of the lasagna, still full from lunch, and Richie finishes the rest. He takes the plate and cutlery down and is halfway through washing up when he hears his name mentioned in the living room. He wipes his hands dry on a tea towel and tiptoes down the hallway, straining to listen in to the conversation.

“’Don’t you think Rich has been acting weird for the past couple of days?” His mom’s voice is tinted with worry.

“A little, but you have to remember that school’s coming up,” his dad says. “He’s probably just stressed. You know that school isn’t easy for him and his friends.”

“But the extra food—”

“He’s a growing boy, Maggie,” his dad waves away the concern. “Look, we’ll ask him if anything is going on tomorrow morning before he heads off with his friends. Sound good?”

“Alright. Well I’m going to head upstairs and read for a bit.” Maggie says and Richie hurries to get back into the kitchen and finish the washing up.

When she walks out of the living room and peers down the hallway at him he gives hr the biggest grin he can muster. They’re nowhere near discovering the truth, and his dad has given him a lovely excuse he can use tomorrow, but he’s still a little worried. He _likes_ having Eddie around and if they find out then everything will be destroyed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My tumblr](https://deadwardkaspbrak.tumblr.com/)   
>  [A(n unfinished) playlist for this fic](https://open.spotify.com/user/hvavg74h1y8fsk8k1pxvqbi2i/playlist/4FtCCiLHMqbY8z36pX5cXf?si=2wn7Wug4RTmfY3taY_BXMQ)


	3. Chapter Three

Richie wakes up that morning to his mom knocking on his door. He bolts up in a panic once the knocking become louder and he’s no longer half asleep, shooing Eddie into his closet before he pulls open is bedroom door. He can only be glad that she didn’t just enter. Thank God for small mercies.

“What’s up?” He asks, leaning against his door frame. He must have slept through his alarm, because it’s a lot later than when he wanted to wake up judging by the fact that his mom is already awake.

“Your dad and I want to talk to you,” she says, and fear washes over him for a second before he remembers the conversation last night. They were worried about him. That’s why they wanted to talk to him. “You’re not in trouble or anything, don’t worry. We just want to have a chat.”

No. He doesn’t want to have a chat. Not really.

But Richie supposes, as he follows his mom downstairs and into the living room, that it isn’t the worst thing. At least they care about him. Not like Mr. Marsh who is, to put it lightly, a colossal pain in the ass, or Mr and Mrs. Denbrough who, in the midst of their family tragedy, have seemingly forgotten about their oldest son. It could be a lot worse, he reminds himself, sure it’s not exactly how he wants to start his day but he’s sure that Bev and Bill would be delighted if their parents suddenly cared and asked them how they were so he can’t really complain and he feels slightly selfish for even thinking about it.

So he enters the living room, smiles at his dad, and sits in the armchair opposite his parents, taking a sip from his dad’s coffee mug as he sits down. He giggles as he’s told that he’s too young for coffee and shrugs his shoulders, jokingly leaning in to grab the mug again and take another sip.

“Richie we’re worried about you,” his mom says bluntly, her eyes scanning his face for any reaction. He tries not to show one. “You’ve been acting a little weird recently and we just want to make sure that you’re alright. That nothing’s going on that’s making you stressed or worried.”

If only he could actually tell them what was happening. The words are on the tip of his tongue: ‘mom, dad, I’m hiding a boy in my bedroom. His name is Eddie, he’s fifteen like I am and he ran away from New York. Can he take the spare room so I can get my bed back?’ but for once in his life he manages to keep them back and instead just shakes his head.

“There’s nothing really,” he lies. “Other than school starting of course. You know what Bowers is like. I mean we’ll be able to handle it, we always have but it’s a little bit shitty really—”

“Language, Richard Tozier.” His dad raises his eyebrows.

“English,” Richie replies, flashing a toothy grin. “But yeah, that’s it. I’m just trying to get all of my homework done and stuff and it’s a little bit stressful but I’m fine, honest.”

“Do you need me to go in and talk about Bowers to the principal?”

“I appreciate it, mom, I really do,” he says. And he’s not lying now. “But that’ll just make it all worse. I already have a target on my back but you’d be handing Henry a loaded gun. It’s not worth it and I’d actually, weirdly, like to live to graduate so, thanks but no thanks.”

“You’re sure that everything is fine?” His mom presses and part of him is worried that she knows, that she’s going to follow up the question with something regarding Eddie but she doesn’t, just relaxes when he tells her again that everything is fine, it’s just school coming up.

And in reality he has barely thought about school other than making sure that Eddie will have stuff to do when Richie is gone. He also doesn’t really care about Bowers either, and the boy doesn’t really stress him out either. Sure, it’s going to be harder to ignore him this year if he really is being held back again but being bullied by Bowers’ Gang is like a rite of passage at Derry High. Makes you into a man. There’s no getting away from it and if you come through on the other side, maybe shaken and a little harmed, then that’s cool. Richie isn’t sure why the losers get the brunt of the bullying but they’ve learnt to deal with it. It’s inevitable like homework and tests and there’s no point feeling sorry for yourself over it because that’s what Henry wants and he’s the one that’s being held back for the second year in a row. He’s the one that’s probably going to still be in high school in ten years. Not Richie, or Bev, or Ben or any of the kids he makes fun of.

“Can I go back upstairs?” He asks, already antsy to get up to Eddie. He needs to get them food once his parents leave, and he wants to introduce Eddie to the losers’ club today too. That means he needs to call and arrange a time (not a place, though, they’ll all agree on the underground clubhoue), and he wants to get it done as soon as possible so that they can get back before his parents do. It’s getting kind of exhausting constantly have to sneak out and to have to go behind his parents’ backs and lie to them.

“Sure,” his dad nods. “If you go outside today make sure to be safe, alright?”

“We always are, dad,” Richie smiles as he stands up from his chair. He looks at both of his parents. “You know, you two worry too much.”

“It’s what happens when you’re a parent, Richie,” His dad shrugs. “You’ll understand if you have your own kinds one day.”

“Well I don’t plan on it, but we’ll see,” Richie says, leaving the living room and heading upstairs. He’s only just closed his bedroom door when he hears his dad call goodbye and the front door slam. It’s not long after that his mom leaves and he turns to Eddie. “Breakfast?”

“Mhm,” Eddie nods. “I’m kind of starving.”

“Me too.” Richie laughs and they head downstairs together.

Richie makes them both pancakes and they sit at the table in silence mostly. Richie has to bring up the fact that they’re going outside today and he doesn’t know how to approach it because they’ve only known each other two days and Richie wants to introduce him to his friends? He looks over at Eddie, his chin and fingers covered with sticky syrup that he’s drowned his pancakes in and it’s true that he’ll fit right in — they’ve often said that it feels as if they’re missing a member, although they don’t know who that member is — but will Eddie himself want to fit in? That’s the most important question.

“Hey, Eddie,” he clears his throat, taking a sip of orange juice before he continues. “I’m meeting up with my friends today at the clubhouse. We do it every Wednesday, usually after school but if we don’t have school then all days. You wanna come? You can meet Bill and Stan, the ones I told you about yesterday, and there’s also Bev, Mike and Ben. They’re the coolest people ever, you’ll love them.”

“Cooler than you?” Eddie asks, tilting his head to the side. Richie’s breath catches in his throat. Eddie had called him cool? Eddie who ran away from home called him cool?! “Richie?”

“Uh, yeah, totally cooler than me,” Richie nods awkwardly, unsure of why he was so worked up over this. He regains his wits, shoving a bite of pancake into his mouth so that he has a couple of seconds to formulate another response whilst he chews. “I’m like the least coolest of the bunch,” he waves away Eddie’s comment with a quick gesture. An alright way to play ot off, he thinks. “But I do appreciate the compliment, Eddie Spaghetti.”

“I don’t believe you but I’ll pretend to,” Eddie smiles. Richie feels his cheeks heat up and ducks his head. He’s starting to realise how Ben feels around Bev. “But sure, I’d like to meet your friends. I mean it’s not as if they’re going to snitch on me right?”  
“No. No way!” Richie shakes his head. “They’re not like that. If anything they’ll help us. They’re really great people, Eddie, I promise.”

/

They’re the last ones to the clubhouse. Richie takes his bike this time, and Eddie rides double. When they reach the area where they ditch their bikes, there’s already five there and Eddie hops off whilst Richie wheels his bike over and dumps it on the pile of bikes. He hears Eddie snort behind him and turns around to see him with an amused expression on his face.

“You know they have kickstands, right?” he says. “You’re not supposed to dump them on the ground like that.”

“Kickstands are for Stan,” Richie laughs, gesturing to the one bike upright and not splattered with mud. “I’m good, thanks.”

Eddie just rolls his eyes and follows him down the trail again. They can hear the others before they even reach the clearing and when they do, the top of the clubhouse is propped open and Bev is sat with her back to them, legs stretched out in front of her. The cigarette smoke swirling around her head was a clear indication of what she was doing and Richie presses a finger to his lips, holds up his other hand for Eddie to stop where he is and then tiptoes towards Bev.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that smoking is a dirty habit, Beverly Marsh.” He grins, snagging the lit cigarette from her hand before taking a drag. He laughs at the squeal she let out and how she jumps to her feet, whirling around.

“Richie Tozier I’m gonna—” she yells, whirling around. But then she stops, narrowing her eyes at something over Richie’s shoulder. “Who’s that?” she asks, jabbing a finger towards Eddie who looks slightly scared, but lists his chin and keeps eye contact with Bev anyway.

“That’s Eddie,” Richie says, walking over to the boy and slinging his arm around his shoulder. He pulls him forward, closer to the clubhouse where the other losers have started to emerge. “He’s a runaway from New York and he’s currently living in my bedroom.”

“He’s what?” Ben gasps. “Richie do your parents know?!”

“Do you think he’d be in my bedroom if they did?” Richie raises his eyebrows. “Hell no they don’t know and I’d like to keep it that way for a while, alright? Sure, they’re going to find out at some point but I’d rather it not be now.”

“Well if you trust him then we trust him,” Mike shrugs. “You wanna come down into the clubhouse, Eddie? It’s pretty cool if I do say so myself. Ben built it for us when we were eleven,” he gestures to Ben who, similar to Richie this morning, goes bright red. “We’ve got snacks.”

“I’m in if there’s snacks.” Eddie grins.

/

They have one of the best evenings they’ve had in a while. There’s laughter and jokes and games and music and Eddie fits in just like Richie had thought he would. As they’re climbing out and heading back to their bikes, Bill declares that he’s the seventh loser, that finally their club is complete and they’re glad that Eddie ran away from home. Like Richie, they don’t really know the specifics but it’s fine because they don’t care. Eddie’s one of them now regardless. Richie makes up he back of the group, next to Stan who has his arm around Richie’s shoulders as he grins and makes jokes and Richei wishes that this day and the joy accompanying it would never end.

Unfortunately it does. Pretty quickly.

They’re just starting to pry their bikes from the pile when they hear the familiar voice ringing out across the barrens. Their heads snap to the source of the noise, a group of three boys coming towards them. Bowers’ Gang. Bill lets out a sigh and they all drop their bikes again, standing tall as a group. Mike and Bill does too, something that makes Richie want to smile although he knows that this isn’t something to smile at. He’d been hoping to avoid the Bowers’ Gang until school started at least but it seemed as if that wasn’t going to happen. He could only hope that Henry was in a good mood and that he wouldn’t be too rough on Eddie.

“What do we have here?” Henry grins as he approaches the group, cracking his knuckles. “Seems like the losers’ club has been recruiting,” his eyes focus on Eddie who looks similar to how he did earlier when staring down Bev. Richie feels something close to pride swelling in his chest. “What’s your name?”

“It’s none of your business,” Eddie answers quickly and Bev lets out a laugh, quickly followed by the other losers. Richie can detect an undercurrent of fear within the laughs, and he has to admit that he doesn’t feel great about this either, but it’s good to see someone sticking up to Henry for once. “I don’t know who you are but I don’t really care. Leave me and my friends alone, please.”

“No one tells me what to do, pipsqueak,” Henry snarls taking a step towards the group. He turns to Belch and Patrick who both have grins on their faces with the anticipation of what was to come. “What do you say we teach these guys a lesson?”

Then the fists start flying.

Richie doesn’t know which way is up or down during the fight. There’s too much going on, too many people and too many screams. He’s vaguely aware that Bill is next to him and he knows that it’s Patrick’s fist that smashes into his nose and that it’s Patrick’s ribs that his foot meets. He thinks that during the chaos he accidentally hits Stan but he’s not too sure. It shouldn’t even be a fight; there’s seven of them and only three of the others, but they’re not exactly the toughest of kids.

He doesn’t know how long the fight lasts for but all he knows is that he’s face down in the dirt by the time the Bowers and the others leave. His ribs hurt. Every bit of him hurts. It’s been a while since he’s been beaten like this and although it’s not an unfamiliar feeling to him, which is sad he supposes but it’s just a part of life when Henry Bowers hates you.

“Richie?” Bev’s voice is soft as she shakes his shoulder and he rolls onto his back. She doesn’t look hurt other than her quickly bruising knuckles and Richie’s glad. “Damn, they got you pretty good.”

“Yeah,” he nods, sitting up. “Patrick has a strong punch,” he laughs bitterly, looking around at the other losers. Stan and Ben don’t look too bad (although Stan’s furiously trying to rub the mud from his clothes), Mike’s probably the worst of all of them, leaning heavily against Bill, who’s nose is bleeding, his left eye is swollen shut and blood dribbling down his cheek from his forehead from the way he’s gingerly touching his foot to the ground, Richie would assume that he’s twisted his ankle too. They’ll be in pain for the next couple of days but, unfortunately, it’s nothing that they haven’t dealt with before. “My mom’s gonna freak out, though. She asked me this morning whether or not I wanted her to go into the principal about Bowers. Of course I said no but she isn’t going to like this…”

“My dad’s out so you and Eddie can come back to mine and clean up if you want,” she says. “He’s out of town with a couple of friends so it’s totally fine. He won’t catch us.”

At the mention of Eddie’s name, Richie's stomach drops. He looks around frantically, searching for the boy. He hadn’t even realised that the boy was missing when he was looking at the other losers. Fuck. Richie was the worst. Bev seems to have caught on, panic in her eyes as she meets Richie’s gaze.

“Has anyone seen Eddie?!” She yells to the other losers and they all shake their heads and Richie sees it dawn on them too. Eddie’s gone.

Richie jumps to his feet, ignoring the pain racking his body. “Ben and Bev, you’re together and Stan you’re with me. Bill you can join either group once you’ve taken Mike home, just call one of us to find out where we are. Me and Stan will search the Barrens whilst you guys,” he gestures to Bev and Ben. “You guys search the town, okay? We need to find him before the gang does.”  
That sends a shiver down Richie’s spine as he and Stan race back to the clubhouse. God knows what Bowers and co. will do to Eddie if they find him alone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [My tumblr](https://deadwardkaspbrak.tumblr.com/)   
>  [A(n unfinished) playlist for this fic](https://open.spotify.com/user/hvavg74h1y8fsk8k1pxvqbi2i/playlist/4FtCCiLHMqbY8z36pX5cXf?si=2wn7Wug4RTmfY3taY_BXMQ)
> 
>  
> 
> I thought that I was going to have to post this late because episode 1 of Life is Strange 2 released yesterday and I was up late playing it with only 600 words written of this chapter. I woke up in a fairly motivated mood, though, and managed to push myself to get this done before I started playing it again (chapter one is taking forever! I love it!!!!) so bye, I'm gonna go lose myself in the game again!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading this!!


End file.
